Coronavirus fears prompt quarantined Chinese to turn towards online health consultations

Due to the mandatory quarantines imposed by the Chinese authorities or simply due to the fear of the Coronavirus, million of Chinese stuck at home and are turning to online health consultation services to alleviate their fears. According to reports, this new surge in customers has given a boost to the online health industry in China.

Shares of online health platforms go up

Even if they are not restricted by quarantine imposed by the authorities, many Chinese citizens are still unwilling to venture outdoors for long periods of time like going to the hospital. Since they cannot go to the hospital they instead turn to online consultation services.

According to reports, JD Health, which is an online healthcare platform has seen its daily volume of respiratory-related online consultations jump by nine times the usual number, while consultations for mental health-related inquiries have grown almost five to seven times the normal amount.

As per reports, most of the consultation requests have been between January and mid-February and the majority were about the Coronavirus. Reportedly people are afraid of even a sneeze. Reports have also indicated that online doctor consultation platform Wenyisheng has been flooded with almost 850,000 inquiries daily and around 400,000 of them were respiratory-related. This figure is 50 times what it was the previous year.

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Even Alibaba Health Information Technology Ltd has experienced a surge in consultation requests. Online healthcare has been believed by many experts to be a very promising sector in China, especially given the lack of doctors and the long distances patients sometimes have to travel in order to see a doctor.

But despite its promise, the industry has failed to turn a  profit and win over customers. But the recent Coronavirus outbreak has changed all of that and reset expectations for online healthcare in China. According to reports, shares of Alibaba Health went up by 58 per cent.

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(With Agency Inputs)